19 September 2017

Destruction of the Mycenean palaces

  • Between c.1200 and 1100 BC, the Mycenean palaces, including their archives, were burnt down for the last time
    • c.1200: Knossos, Mycenae, and Tiryns
    • c.1190 Midea, Pylos, and Thebes
    • Kydonia suffers a destruction around 1200 BC, but it seems to be rebuilt and persist until about 1100 BC
    • Feeble attempt at rebuilding at Tiryns, and a nucleated settlement within its walls for the following century
    • The remaineder abandoned without further ado

Resettlement at Tiryns, LH IIIC

c.1180-1100 BC

"Squatters" and "Refugees"

Pylos, 11th century BC

"Squatters" and "Refugees"

Karphi, Crete

Karphi (continued)

Megaron to Hearth Temple?

Dreros, Lasithi Plateau, Crete

Explanations for the destruction of the Mycenean Palaces

  • "Dorian Invasions" a.k.a. "Return of the Descendents of Herakles" (Herakleidai)
  • Invasion and raiding by the "Sea peoples"
    • But these attackers, recorded in Egypt and Syria, include Denyen and Ekwesh who may = Homer's "Danaans" and "Akhai[w]ans" - i.e. Greeks Further written evidence
    • The term for "Great King," wanax (later anax), survives only as the title of heroes in Homer or as the epithet of certain male gods
    • However, the subordinate title basileus persists as one of the usual terms for "king"

Evidence and Cause of the destruction of the Mycenean Palaces

  • Archaeological Evidence
    • The destruction appears to be accidental, not deliberate
    • So the difficult question is, why weren't they rebuilt again?
  • Complex causes
    • Natural disasters?
    • Climate Change?
    • Economic crisis?
    • Ecological unsustainability?
    • Decimation, dislocation, and migration of impoverished populations?

Chronological Framework

  • The Mycenean period ends with the burning of the palaces between 1200 and 1100 BC
  • The short interval from c.1100 BC until 1050 BC is sometimes called "submycenean" and "subminoan"
    • c.1050-950/900 Protogeometric Period
    • c.950-850 Early Geometric Period
    • c.850-750 Middle Geometric Period
    • c.750-700 Late Geometric Period
  • Note: the chronology is still under serious revision as new finds appear.

Why call it the "Dark Age"?

  • Material culture forms associated with the palaces either disapper entirely or are radically transformed and reinterpreted.
    • The use of Linear B script ceases (which is, of course, why it had to be "deciphered" in modern times)
    • Burial in tholos tombs, as well as lesser "chamber tombs" that are modeled after them, ceases (which is why later Greeks misidentified them as "treasuries," etc.)
    • The megaron is radically transformed in structure and purpose, if not entirely abandoned as a design

  • The traditional explanation essentially takes the perspective of the Mycenean elites, describing the succeeding period only in terms of destructions and absences
    • "Barbarian invaders"
    • Lack of written records
    • Dimminution of certain forms of wealth
    • Abandonment of major sites and, by inference, depopulation
  • However, much like the "Dark Age" of the First Millennium AD, this is a period of important socio-cultural developments
    • Technological innovations: iron, ceramic manufacturing processes
    • Formation of classical Greek political institutions
    • Development of mythological canon that is eventually set down in writing

Changes in Pottery Form

Disappearance of stirrup jar, stemmed kylix as distinct forms. Appearance of lekythos, skyphos (with conical base)

Changes is Pottery Style

Emergence of "Geometric" Patterns

Changes in Burial Practice

Changes in Burial Practice

  • Marker Vessels
    • Krater : wine mixing bowl
    • Amphora : large, closed-form with two opposing handles on shoulder or neck
    • Pithos : a storage jar
  • From the earliest period cremation, especially for men of means (so-called "heroic burial")
  • But inhumation for women of the same class
  • Later, inhumation in cists for both genders
    • Does cremation reflect an old tradition "re-emerging" too?

Lefkandi: Treatment of Corpses

Feminine Grave Goods

Lefkandi Grave Motifs

Development of Geometric Pottery

Late Geometric Pottery

From the Dipylon Cemetery, Athens

Emergence of Mythological Themes

(left and bottom) "Moliones" oinochoe, found in the Agora, Athens; (right) Krater, found in Thebes